Lee pointed at a chair by the table.

“Sit down for a moment; there’s another matter.”  He crossed to his desk, put his hand in a drawer for something, and came back.  “Look at that,” he said, tossing a revolver cartridge on the table before Gretzinger.

The man picked it up and turned it over between thumb and finger, examining it with mingled surprise and curiosity.

“What about it?” he questioned.

“I understand you’re interested in a certain young lady,” Bryant stated, smoothly.

Gretzinger straightened on his seat, flashing his look up to the other’s.  A sudden tightening of his lips accompanied the action and he ceased to revolve the cartridge he held.

“I’ll not discuss my personal affairs with you or——­”

“When they touch mine, you will,” was the answer.

“Are you jealous?” Gretzinger asked after a pause, with a trace of insolence.  “Believe you are.  I thought, along with your other shortcomings, you weren’t capable of even that.  Now that we’re talking, I’ll say that I’ve taken Ruth round and found her entertaining.  What about it?  And I’ve given her my opinion of the way you’ve run this work, because she asked for it.  I told her that you had botched the business from the beginning.  I told her you were unpractical, incompetent, small-gauged, and lightweight, and would make a failure of everything you touched.  There you have it all.  Well?”

Bryant’s brows twitched for an instant.

“I guessed as much.”  He stood staring in silence at the table, but presently brought himself to attention.  “Honour is something you don’t understand.  So I thought that bullet might focus your mind on possible consequences.”

“What’s all this rot!”

Lee leaned forward with his fists resting on the table and his eyes probing Gretzinger’s.

“If any harm comes to Ruth through you, that bullet will pay it out,” he said, harshly.  “You’ve felt its weight.  It’s forty-four calibre, plenty heavy enough to do the business.  I can smash a potato at thirty paces.  One shot is all I shall ask.  I won’t do any hemming and hawing over the matter, or——­”

Gretzinger sprang up.

“See here, Bryant!” he cried.

“Or advertising in the newspapers,” the other went on, in a level tone.  “I’ll attend to your case, quickly and quietly.  Here, or in New York, or wherever you are.  That’s all.”

Gretzinger had gone a little pale.  He was nervously drawing on his cap.

“Listen to me for a moment——­”

“I said that’s all.  Get out.”  And Bryant’s mien brooked no temporizing.

It was of Lee’s nature not to brood on such matters.  He had given the warning and must await the issue.  Meanwhile, the burden of work and the needs of the project would afford sufficient occupation for his mind.